Sprayers, such as backpack sprayers are used across an array of applications, including farms, golf courses and residential properties, to apply water or other liquids, such as fertilizers or pesticides including herbicides, insecticides and the like. As the name implies, backpack sprayers are designed to be worn by the user, such as through securing a tank of the sprayer against the user's back via one or more shoulder straps. A handheld spray wand is fluidly coupled to the tank and is manually actuated, such as through a trigger, to dispense fluid from the tank through the spray wand. To pressurize the fluid for delivery to the wand, backpack sprayers include a pump and may be configured as battery powered pump sprayers or manually actuated pump sprayers.
In use, a backpack sprayer tank is filled with a selected fluid composition that is to be applied. By way of example, pesticide solutions may be anywhere from about 1% to about 10% active chemical in water. In one scenario, a user may spray a diluted herbicide solution, such as to target thistle. However, to apply a second pesticide solution, such as a diluted insecticide to fruit trees, the user will first have to completely empty the tank of the herbicide solution before rinsing the tank of any residual chemicals and finally refilling the tank with the desired insecticide solution. As may be readily apparent from the above, there are numerous drawbacks to such systems. For example and without limitation, such drawbacks may include waste of chemicals, the need for controlled disposal of unused chemicals, the time consuming need to thoroughly clean the tank between applications and the potential for cross-contamination and application of unwanted chemicals after incomplete or unsuccessful cleaning of the tank.
To alleviate some of the above-referenced drawbacks of these backpack sprayers, systems have been developed which segregate the chemical portion from the water/diluent portion of the system. In such systems, the chemical may be stored in a smaller, separate tank than the large diluent/water tank. Metering devices may then add chemical to a flow of water prior to emission from the wand. In this manner, the chemical remains isolated from the water tank, thereby minimizing or avoiding possible contamination of the water source.
From the above discussion, it can be seen that there are a number of possible configurations for a backpack style sprayer. For instance, the sprayer may be a single tank sprayer or a two-tank sprayer having a diluent tank and concentrate tank. Additionally, the pump unit may be mounted outside or inside the main spray tank. Still further, the pump unit may be manually actuated or electrically powered. Electrically powered pump units can, for instance, be hard-wired with an electrical cord or include a battery powered mechanism. Typically, each of these various sprayer configurations would require a dedicated tank mounting and sprayer stand. As a result, backpack sprayer options may be limited as manufacturers minimize available configurations due to manufacturing inefficiencies and design and production costs.
Thus, there remains a need for a singular modular frame for a backpack sprayer that can be used to mount various spray tank and pump unit configurations. The present invention satisfies this as well as other needs.